Her mother and her partner called her a good and caring mom who made a mistake.

Her defense lawyer asked that Yulissa Troncoso be given probation, saying she had never been in trouble before. The prosecutor took no position on whether the Allentown woman deserved to go to jail.

But for leaving her five children alone in the car while she gambled at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, Troncoso was escorted in handcuffs Friday from a Northampton County courtroom. She'll serve two months to two years in county prison, a sentence that Judge Michael Koury Jr. decided she deserved for neglecting her children, "the ultimate betrayal," he said.

In handing it down, Koury asked Troncoso what would have happened if one of her kids had suffered heat stroke that summer evening, been accosted by a stranger, left the car looking for her, or gotten hurt playing with the electric windows.

"What would have happened if a kidnapper entered your vehicle, Troncoso?" Koury asked. "What would have happened if a child molester had entered the vehicle?"

Troncoso, 34, pleaded guilty in April to endangering the welfare of children, a misdemeanor. But whether she would be sent to prison was a question that had remained unanswered until Friday, given guidelines that called for anything from probation to nine months behind bars at minimum.

The children, whose ages ranged from 10 months to 12 years, were left in Troncoso's sport-utility vehicle for more than an hour on July 26, a hot summer day in which temperatures had reached 91 degrees.

After the children were discovered by Sands security personnel, Troncoso was repeatedly paged while she played slot machines on the casino floor, police said.

Defense attorney Glennis Clark has said Troncoso prepared her kids for her absence, cracking the windows and leaving them water, soda and pizza. If it got hot, she had told her oldest to start the car and turn on the air conditioning, he said.

Clark said the children were taken from their mother by caseworkers for a few days, but were since reunited with her. He calls Troncoso a "good mom" who made an error in judgment.

Those sentiments were echoed in court by Troncoso's mother, Miguelina Troncoso, and the father of the two youngest children, John Arroyo.

"She has always taken care of the children and worried about them," said Miguelina Troncoso. "She made this one mistake. I don't know what happened to her."

After Koury pronounced his sentence, the defendant asked to be allowed to address the court again. She told Koury that she has learned from what happened and understands the risks she subjected her children to.